Nigerian companies are deepening investments in privacy protection as they scale up artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, with 40% of organisations dedicating more than 30% of their IT budgets to privacy.
This is according to a new report titled: The AI Privacy Equation: The Nigerian Model of Responsible AI Adoption conducted by Arion Research on behalf of Zoho
The report unveiled during Zoholics Nigeria noted that this indicates a growing recognition among Nigerian businesses that strong governance is a source of competitive advantage.
“Nigerian businesses are not just adopting AI, they are embedding it responsibly. 94% of organisations now have a dedicated privacy officer or team, a figure well above global averages.
In fact, 40% of the organisations allocate more than 30% of their IT budgets specifically to privacy protection, reflecting the belief that strong governance is a competitive advantage rather than constraint,”they stated.
Financial sector at the forefront
The financial sector is leading this transformation, making up 29% of the respondents in the survey. The sector’s top AI use cases include customer service automation (49%), software development and enhancement (46%), and marketing optimisation (32%). Each is being implemented with a strong emphasis on privacy principles.
- Despite the progress, skills shortages remain a key challenge. About 37% of organisations cited lack of technical expertise as the top barrier to AI adoption, while 35% pointed to privacy and security concerns.
- To address these gaps, 69% of companies are prioritising data analysis and interpretation skills, 53% are focused on AI literacy, and 40% are investing in prompt engineering for generative AI tools.
The report also found that nearly 65% of organisations have increased their regulatory consciousness since the introduction of Nigeria’s Data Protection Act. Companies are adopting practices such as regular privacy audits of AI systems (57%), data minimisation in AI training (57%), and explainability requirements for AI decisions (52%).
CEOs lead AI transformation
The findings show that executive leadership is central to the rapid progress of AI in Nigeria. More than half of the respondents occupy CEO or executive roles, highlighting the top-level commitment to scaling AI adoption.
The report, which surveyed 386 respondents across Nigeria, found that 93% of organisations have already embarked on their AI journey. Of these, 31% have achieved advanced integration across the organisation, while 26.5% are implementing AI across multiple departments.
Michael Fauscette, CEO & Chief Analyst of Arion Research, noted that Nigeria’s AI adoption shows that privacy and innovation can go hand in hand, with 84% of firms improving privacy through AI.
“The Nigerian model challenges the conventional wisdom that AI adoption requires privacy trade-offs. When 84% of organisations strengthen their privacy measures through AI implementation rather than weakening them, it demonstrates that privacy-conscious design can actually enhance AI outcomes. Nigerian businesses are proving that robust governance isn’t a constraint on innovation, it’s a competitive advantage that builds customer trust and creates sustainable AI implementations,” Fauscette stated.
Beyond AI adoption and privacy focus, Zoho also announced another milestone in Nigeria with a 75% customer growth in 2024.
“We continue to invest in Nigeria as businesses here accelerate their adoption of technology to grow and scale,” said Kehinde Ogundare, country head, Zoho Nigeria.
The study highlighted that 84% of organisations report strengthening privacy measures since deploying AI, with 66% describing the improvements as significant. In addition, 94% of organisations now have a dedicated privacy officer or team, a figure that surpasses global averages.
